Falling back on to the bandwagon?

Well, the first bad weekend is here. I was waiting for it because I knew it was inevitable, particularly with J in town.

I was supposed to run 5 miles on Saturday, but life happened and I didn’t make time. J didn’t help this problem by constantly encouraging me to push back the run. This screws everything up for this week but I’m not letting it completely throw me off.

Ideally, this is what I was supposed to run this week:

T: 3 miles

W: 4 miles

Th: 3 miles

Sa: 9 miles

Instead I’m going to run:

M: 5 miles (making up for this weekend)

W: 3 miles

Th: 4 miles

F: 3 miles

Su: 9 miles

And then next week I can hopefully go back to the originally scheduled T/W/Th/Sa schedule. J leaves for DC on the 15th, which I am not excited about at all EXCEPT that it will help with my running schedule because he is the ultimate distraction on that front.

Day -19

I have decided to start posting more regularly, as of today. The title of the post is Day -19 (negative nineteen) means that in 19 days I start the official marathon training program in 19 days. I anticipate spending the next 19 days preparing to start the marathon training. I am hoping to turn this online journal into my training journal, documenting both my running, cross training, and my diet. I think diet might actually be the key to my success. I’m shooting for 60-65% carbs (with complex carbs making up as much of that as possible), 15-20% fat, and the rest protein, although those are just rough estimates. Ironically I’m going to need to eat more while doing this; I think I was not eating enough while training for the Mini which hurt me a lot during the long runs in terms of endurance.

Running: 10 minute warm up (2 1/2 minute increments from 3.5 to 5.0, increasing by .5 each time); 23 minutes at 6 mph, for a total of 3 miles before the .3 mile cool-down. 3.3 miles total.

Food:

Breakfast: raisin bran with skim milk and a banana

Snack: Nature Valley Peanut Butter Bar

Lunch: Ham sandwhich with avocado, tomato and reduced fat cheese, and Reduced Fat Wheat Thins

Dinner: 2 cups of left over pasta and tomato sauce with about 4 oz of chicken

Post-work out snack: cup of skim milk (trying to get that protein after the workout) and Reduced Fat Wheat Thins

Late Night (shouldn’t-have-had-snack): more wheat thins and the last rice krispy treat (mom bought them when I moved in)

Overall calories (plus rice krispy, I don’t want to enter it because I don’t want to eat them anymore.

Total:		1733
Fat:	43	390	23%
Sat:	9	78	5%
Poly:	8	74	4%
Mono:	9	79	5%
Carbs:	268	974	57%
Fiber:	24	0	0%
Protein:	89	355	21%
Alcohol:	0	0	0%

I think this was a pretty good day. I need to do less late night snacking, but overall I was pleased. AND AND AND I didn’t eat out at all (which is mostly not a nutrition thing and more of a wallet thing, so that was good). Tomorrow morning I’m going to take the “beginning” weight. I gave myself a few days to lose some pounds that were just gained from poor eating last week. I hope to lose 30-40 pounds while training for this marathon. That’s about 1.92 pounds per week until then, which is totally manageable. The clutch part is eating enough to maintain my running but also enough to lose some weight. I guess official weigh day will be Thursday morning, which is actually good because it’s midweek so it should be a good measurement of where I’m at, not affected by the dehydration of the long run, or any extra calories that I may consume via beer

Big purchases…

I bought all the furniture for my new apartment today.  Here’s a picture filled post about what I got (I’m pretty excited).

Couch: 

Bedroom set (I got the bed, dresser with mirror, and night stand):

End tables:

 

Dining room table:

TV:

 

That’s a pretty big splurge but I also bought this:

 

Here’s the thing: I spent a lot of money, BUT I bought it all on INTEREST-FREE FINANCING. The furniture for 12 months and the tv/wii for 24 months. You can’t beat interest free financing! I’m pretty stoked.

I’m a woman; therefore, I change my mind

Despite my last post, I have changed my mind. I signed up for the Chicago Marathon two nights ago. I went o the gym on Monday to test a theory: that being that my runs outside are bad because of my allergies. And I was right. I had a great 5 mile run on the treadmill. Fastest 5 miles I’d ever done, I didn’t have to walk at all, and I just felt great. So I think I’m going to stick to the treadmill (joining a new gym this weekend after the move) until my new health insurance starts in June (which is the best thing ever to me) when I can start getting allergy shots and hopefully get rid of these allergies altogether. 

I ran again today and did intervals on the treadmill. It went pretty well. And again no walking. 

 

I move tomorrow so hopefully I’ll be able to get back here and do some real posting re: the Mini Marathon and training for the marathon. Ciao.

Decisions, decisions

I have made a pretty major decision regarding running. After the Mini Marathon, I’m not going to sign up for any races until I lose 25 pounds. I started to read Hal Higdon’s Marathon: the Ultimate Training Guide and, although the book is fabulous, he pointed out that if you are overweight you really shouldn’t start training for a marathon. I’ve wondered about this for some time. I think being overweight seriously slows me down, but, more importantly, because I’m trying to lose weight in addition to training I’ve been watching my calories which likely results in me not eating enough calories and makes me hit a wall faster, particularly during my long runs. Yesterday, I went out for a 10 mile run. I was okay for the first 6 miles, but the last four were horrible and were mostly walked. I know I have the endurance level but I just felt like crap. So, now I have a bigger goal with the weight loss: lose the weight to be able to race again. I’m hoping that 2009’s Mini Marathon can be my re-entry into races and then the 2009 Chicago Marathon can be my first marathon. I really, really want to be a marathon runner, but I think the most logical way to achieve that goal is first losing the weight and second training for the marathon while in good physical health (although I think my actual health, given that my blood pressure and heart rate are “fabulous” according to my doctors, is fine, the extra weight is just a problem) and therefore be able to set some real goals with the marathon and just feel all around better doing the training.

I move in 5 or 6 days! I’m very excited about the move, more excited about my new apartment and the furniture I’m planning to buy, and super excited to be done with law school.

Previous Post

Well, unfortunately, I only ran once on the cruise. In my defense, the treadmills were AWFUL…however, that’s not a great excuse because (1) I didn’t even go until Wednesday and (2) I could have run outside if I really had wanted to because we were at sea for a whole day only once.

Oh well, it was vacation and I definitely got rested and relaxed in time to come back and kick the Mini Marathon in the butt. And on Sunday, despite having a sick/sore throat thing, I ran 8 miles. AND my time wasn’t bad. I did the Jeff Galloway method of using walking breaks (I did .4 miles running/.1 miles walking…16 times!) and did the run in 90 minutes, just 2 minutes over my goal (11 minute miles). I really think I can do the Mini in 2:20…which is 16 minutes better than last year. I would love to do it lower than 2:15 but I also want to be realistic with my goals.

This afternoon I’m going to go 5 miles. I think my cold is in it’s final stages (just a runny nose at this point, no sore throat…I can deal with blowing my nose but there’s not a lot of relief to be gained from a sore throat).

I <3 Garmin

I have officially run 3 5ks with my Garmin, and, frankly I’m in love.  It is so awesome to know pretty much exactly what pace you are running at and how far you’ve gone combined with the freedom to run wherever you want (as long as you can get back to where you started) without worrying about having to remember where you went later so you can track it on a website. My first two runs were on the trail by my apartment, but yesterday I ventured into DC and just parked my car at the first available spot I could find. It was along a road that runs right next to the Potomac River; I knew there was street parking here and it was relatively close to where I wanted to run, which I thought was along the river. There are trails on both sides of it; multiple bridges with sidewalks to cross over if you want to go to the other side; and tons of runners to motivate you. However, after “locating the satellites” (the only downside to the Garmin) while wearing a tank top and 3/4 length work out pants (my work out clothes could take over a whole new post, I’ve been experimenting), I realized that it was cold and really windy. AND then I thought, well yeah Jaimie it probably is more windy by the river, so I ran about a tenth of a mile and immediately took a left and just ran toward the Washington Monument. I was trying to find my Magic Mile time.  I ended up running it in 8:57. I think in a better (i.e., warmer, less windy, less congested, and less traffic signals area) situation I can run it faster, which of course I may just have to try on vacation next week. However, I still enjoyed the run, and will REALLY miss running in DC when I leave in a month. You couldn’t ask for a better city or better sights to run among. It’s been a great place to become a runner.

I have been thinking a lot about this blog. I think I want to blog more but less about running (it gets old and hard to think of new topics/posts), so I think I may expand to politics/books I’ve read/news/etc. here after the cruise. I am not sure how long I’ll be able to maintain it but I like the prospect.  If you have any ideas, let me know!

Some good, some bad

So, on Friday night out of sheer excitement to run with my Garmin and my new Asics, I headed out for a run. I ended up running 3.12 miles (5 km) — I think I just like this distance. Since this was my first run outside since the fall, I was worried; however, the run went okay considering the hills. I forgot how hard hills are!

The next day (Saturday), I realized, however, that the previous nights run had not gone well in the shoe department.  As I explained in my last post, the shoe person told me that I didn’t need stability shoes anymore in her opinion.  Unfortunately I think her opinion was dead wrong.  Last year about this time I was training for the half marathon and had an extreme pain in my lower legs in the shin areas. I eventually got stability shoes and I hadn’t experienced that pain since last April. Well, Saturday it was back, and I think it was because of the shoes.  To test that theory, I ran my 6 mile run on Saturday in my old shoes (and on the treadmill because it was late and, for safety reasons, I won’t run in the dark).  My legs were pain free on Sunday.  This morning, just to make sure it was not the running outside that caused the pain, I ran the same route as Friday in my old shoes. Again, no pain.  Needless to say, I’m taking the shoes back and getting some stability ones.

And I ran 22 miles last week! I’m shooting for 23/24 this week But given that we’re flying to Puerto Rico on Friday and departing on our cruise Saturday the running might suffer a bit (but I hope not too much).

New outlook (& new shoes!)

It’s amazing what taking a day off can do for you. I didn’t run on Wednesday, but went back on Thursday. I did a 4 mile run on the treadmill and felt great. And the best part? I think I figured out the reason for the catastrophe on Tuesday: my music. I ran to my iPod with genre selected to play random country music. I think it was just too slow/sad/boring (mind you, I love country music). Yesterday, I changed things up and played only the upbeat, pop songs and it went great. I’m sure the day off and new attitude helped as well. I ran 4 miles in 41:45 which is a pretty good pace for me. Then I did 40 minutes on the elliptical.

On to my new shoes. I have been buying running shoes from a “real” (i.e., not a Dicks/big commercial store, but a store where they watch you run, fit you, and make recommendations) running store for a few years now. When I started going there they told me I overpronated (I was having issues with my knees and shins back then) so they put me in stabilizing shoes.  Well, my knees and shins have been great lately but my toes on the outsides of my feet have been hurting, and I was due for a new pair of shoes (okay, that might be a bit of lie, I’m not sure when I’m due for a new pair because unlike a good runner I wore my most recent pair of shoes as my regular shoes as well so I don’t know how much I actually ran in them).  Turns out, after taking a look at my most recent shoes and the wear on them, I don’t actually overpronate, so the stabilizers were forcing my feet outward, causing the toe pain. I also have a wide foot, so the woman recommended wearing men’s shoes (ugly) or women’s in a wider size. I ended up getting asics in a D width. They were so great last night. I can’t wait to run in them tonight and see how it goes. I also got my garmin in the mail yesterday (it had to charge so I couldn’t use it for a run yesterday), so tonight’s run will be a big shoe and garmin debut (along with some new pop music I put on the ipod). I’m doing a short 3/4 mile run outside tonight and a 6 mile run after class tomorrow (yeah, class on a Saturday and then class again on Easter Sunday. For 8 hours each day…but I can’t complain you do that for 2 weekends and get 3 credit hours. Easiest three credits in law school, and the class is actually fun). If all goes as plan, I’ll have run 23 miles this week I’m sure I’ll report back soon about how all this new equipment goes.

Have a great weekend.

A bad running day.

I almost quit running completely yesterday.  I had convinced myself at some point yesterday that I wanted to run 5 miles last night, I made it to 3.5 and then almost decided to never run again.  Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but I felt so nasty after my run/elliptical training (I got on the elliptical after giving up on the run) yesterday that I contemplated that maybe I’m just not cut out for running. And seriously contemplated how dumb it would be for me to even consider training for a marathon.  Now, I have realistic doubts about training for a marathon, such as lack of time, particularly when I start working full-time in September, but that’s only a month of working before the marathon. I think the time to do it is now.

Anyway, back to yesterday. I don’t know what was wrong. I have been sleeping terribly lately. I think it’s mostly fear/depression about what is going on with J’s job prospects in Indianapolis, and just missing him in general. So sleep deprevation could be one problem.

Maybe I’m running too much. It was the third day in a row that I ran, which isn’t completely unusual as of late. I wasn’t even feeling sore, I was just feeling blah about running, so I don’t think it’s overtraining.

The only other logical explanation I can think of is that I’m sick of the treadmill. I don’t like to admit that because I depend on the treadmill for 100% of my training at this point (hopefully, less so after I get my garmin), but I really think yesterday I was just bored. Add that to the possible lack of sleep and depression and I had an awful run.

Part of me wants to take today off, completely. Part of me thinks I should just go to my aerobics/weight class. And part of me thinks, Jaimie, you will have hard days and you will overcome them, and that is OKAY, get your ass back to the treadmill and try again.

I’ll report back tomorrow and let you know what I did and how it went (if it went).